Is JEE Advanced moving towards BITSAT exam pattern?

By Aditya Singhal

Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences Admission Test (BITSAT) has been a leader in the field of engineering entrance exams in India ever since its inception in May 2005. It has always been conducted online over a window of few days.

From 2018, the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Advanced will also be conducted online. Let's see how the nouveau 'online' mode of JEE compares with the BITSAT exam we already know:

Highlights of the BITSAT Exam Pattern

BITSAT comprises of a three-hour paper which has 4 sections:

• 40 questions are from Physics in Part I
• 40 questions are from Chemistry in Part II
• 15 questions are from English Proficiency and 10 questions from Logical Reasoning in Part III
• 45 questions are from Mathematics in Part IV

All the questions are objective-type multiple-choice questions where students have to choose one answer out of four given options. Correct answers fetch you 3 marks each while incorrect answers make you lose one mark each.

Find colleges you may be eligible for with BITSAT 2018 College Predictor tool.

There is no time-limit defined for each section of the paper - and questions can go back to any question they like at any time in the paper - until they submit the paper.

Students can choose to do extra 12 questions if they are able to do and submit all the 150 questions in time.

Most questions asked in the BITSAT exam are formula-based and are not considered 'very difficult'. However, speed is of essence in the BITSAT exam and can make all the difference to your scores.

Check BITSAT exam pattern and BITSAT syllabus on Shiksha.

Highlights of the JEE Advanced 2018 Exam Pattern

 

JEE Advanced 2018 will have two papers - Paper I and Paper II - with three sections each (Physics, Chemistry and Math). Each paper is of three hours. The paper pattern may vary slightly from one year to next but essentially the breakup of the papers looks like this:

JEE Advanced Paper 1 Exam Pattern

There are three sections in the paper:

Section I has questions with one or more correct options. They are about 7-8 in number. Students are awarded +4 marks if all correct options are chosen, +1 mark for each correct option chosen (if the student’s answer is partially correct and he/she has not chosen any incorrect option), and -2 marks for incorrect answers.

Section 2 has single-digit integer questions – which are about 5 in number. +3 marks are awarded for correct answers. There is no negative marking in this section. Section 3 has MCQs with single correct option. About 6 questions are asked in the paper. +3 marks are awarded for correct answers and -1 mark for incorrect answers.

JEE Advanced Paper II Exam Pattern

There are three sections in the paper:

Section I has about 7 MCQs with single correct option. About 6 questions are asked in the paper. +3 marks are awarded for correct answers and -1 mark for incorrect answers.

Section 2 has questions with one or more correct options. They are about 7-8 in number. Students are awarded +3 marks if all correct options are chosen, +1 mark for each correct option chosen (if the student’s answer is partially correct and he/she has not chosen any incorrect option), and -2 marks for incorrect answers.

Section 3 has Comprehension-type questions. + 3 marks are awarded for correct answers. There is no negative marking in the section.

The difficulty level of questions asked in the JEE exam is considered to be higher than that of BITSAT. They are tricky and mostly application-based.

Till last year, the IIT JEE paper was being conducted in the offline mode but from this year, the exam will be conducted online.

How similar will JEE Advanced 2018 pattern will be to the BITSAT 2018 exam pattern?

 

Like BITSAT, JEE Advanced 2018 will also be conducted in the CBT (computer-based test) mode. The students will have the option to change or modify their answers at any time during the exam. Yet, there are a few differences in both the exams that can influence your exam-taking strategy. For example, the paper pattern of the JEE Advanced exam remains the same and students still have to appear for both the papers in the exam. Students can also choose to write paper in English/Hindi in the JEE Advanced but can take BITSAT only in English.

Here are some other things you should note:

Use of Keyboard

Students will only be able to use the computer mouse (to choose the correct options) or the virtual on-screen keyboard to enter the answers in the IIT JEE exam. The keyboard attached to the computer will be disabled during the examination time.

In BITSAT, students are able to use both the keyboard and the mouse to answer the questions.

Submitting the Exam

In JEE Advanced, the exam will automatically get submitted after three hours - and the student will not have to submit it separately. In BITSAT, students can either choose to submit the test earlier and attempt 12 ‘extra’ questions to fetch more marks or the test will get submitted automatically after the duration of the examination is over (or after 180 minutes). Do note that the students can only attempt extra questions if they have answered ‘all’ the 150 questions first and haven’t skipped any of them.

As soon as you submit the paper in BITSAT, you can see your BITSAT score, number of questions you attempted, number of correct answers, and number of wrong answers. This facility might not be available in the JEE Advanced exam this year.

Question Palette

In JEE Advanced, the Question Palette on the right side of the screen will show the status of the questions as:

Questions that are 'Marked for Review' indicate that the candidate wants to look at them again. The questions will only be evaluated if you have answered the question too. So, make sure that you do answer the questions you mark for review in the exam.

Students can go to any question at any time by choosing the question number from the Question Palette. However, you’ll have to remember that this will not save your answer automatically. To save the answer you’ve chosen, you’ll have to click on ‘Save & Next’ button. If you click on ‘Mark for Review & Next’ button – the question will be marked for review without being answered. So, save your answer first and then, choose another question from the palette. To change the answer of a previously-answered question, go to the question, click on ‘Clear Response’ button, choose the right option(s) and save the correct answer before you skip back to wherever you are.

Students will be allowed to use Scribble Pads to do their calculations and rough work but students will have to note down their names and registration numbers in them – and return them to the invigilator at the end of the exam.

BITSAT interface is similar but is less color-coded than the one JEE Advanced will have:

Question Paper Format

IIT JEE question papers are likely to have a fixed set of questions. There might be multiple versions of the paper though. BITSAT draws questions from a server randomly and hence, is more dynamic in nature.

Syllabus

BITSAT is based on NCERT syllabus of Class XI and XII – just like the JEE Main exam. However, JEE Advanced 2018 has a slightly different syllabus this year. However, it seems that the government might follow the BITSAT way soon – and fix the NCERT syllabus as the standard for all entrance examinations in India in the coming years.

Competitiveness

Both the papers of JEE Advanced 2018 are to be conducted on the same day - Paper 1 from 9 am to 12 noon, and Paper 2 from 2 pm to 5 pm. IIT Kanpur will allow 4,000 more students to sit for JEE Advanced this year - which means that a total of 2,24,000 students (from all categories) will sit for this prestigious engineering exam. These students will be competing for 10,998 seats across the 23 IITs. It means that about 20 students will be competing for each seat available in the exam. If we take into account that about 12 lakh students appear for JEE Main, then we can say that about 109 students compete for each IIT seat in the JEE system. BITSAT 2018 exam will be conducted from May 16 to May 31, 2018. About 68 students compete for each BTech seat in BITS Pilani (and its other campuses).

BITSAT has always been conducted online while JEE Advanced is transitioning to the online mode only this year. They are quite similar to each other but it will still take time for the IITs to conduct the exams as smoothly as BITS Pilani has been doing every year.

What do you think? Share your opinions with us in the Comments section below.

About the Author:

Aditya Singhal is the co-founder of AskIItians, an online coaching platform for IIT JEE, Medical and School Entrance exams. It is his passion and vision to help the engineering and medical aspirants that he along with his co-founder started with this venture. He had worked with Kurt Salmon Associates, a reputed American Management Consultancy.

He wants to incorporate technology in making students learn appropriately through e-learning mediums and tools. He is enthusiastic and passionate about internet products that when used appropriately can make a big difference in the lives of people.